The Blues is a blessing and a curse!
Playing the blues for some is a gimmick and for some a business. Playing the blues for me is a calling! But regardless of the blues being a calling to me, it also runs the gamut from being a blessing to being a curse.
It is superbly spiritual
A blessing in that there is great comfort afforded me from listening to my soul, from where the music flows! It’s difficult to find the right words to explain what that feeling is like. Another artist may be able to paint that picture so that it is more easily understood. Let me just say it is superbly spiritual, and just plain makes one feel good!!
The blues doesn’t draw crowds??
Now, the curse part. Without the fanfare of hyperbole, it just pisses me off to hear a venue owner say, “Sorry, but blues just doesn’t draw crowds anymore!” Especially from venue owners where I have performed before and had great high energy crowds.
Their ears pointed our way and tapping their feet.
Now, to paint a common picture of “those” type of venues. It seems that the majority of those venues’ “hard-drinking, ‘big’ spenders”, (if you prefer – regulars) all gather from the middle to the away-from-the-stage far end of the bar, occupying every available stool, typically ignoring us, but not the chatty server! (But, in the chatty servers defense, he/she is there to sell booze!) But, most of the “regulars” seated at the stage end of the bar, lean their ears our way, tapping their fingers as they listen to the music! And the folks who come to those venues to see us, occupy every table around the stage and really show their appreciation for the music. Oh, and regarding those cats seated from the middle to the far end of the bar, I am pretty sure they would have ignored any band.
It is a welcome curse
Maybe “curse” is too harsh a word, but hopefully, you get the point! I love what I do. I love climbing up on stage; the feeling of entering another realm of existence! I “live” to play my music, and I try to only play with folks who live to play as well. For that is the times that music will have a common thread and the tapestry weaved is hypnotic and mystic! Well, to me anyway!
Take a ride with us
I always try to honor the tradition of the music created by the blues cats that blazed the trail. All I can do is follow their path, and hope that in some place I play, someone in the audience finds a smile coming to their face, closes their eyes and takes a ride with me.
Come take a ride with us and get yourself a copy of “Crossroads Of My Life”.
So, I guess my rant is over. Maybe I’ll see you, down the road.
As Johnny Winter famously put it, “you have to live the blues to play the blues. Man you must have lived some hard blues.”
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